The Devil's Necklace. Kat Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ stood with his legs braced apart and his hands curved round the rail. He stared out at the inky water, his mind filled with images of Grace Chastain. Thoughts of her mingled with memories of the men in his crew, brave men, some of them married with families, men who had fought beside him over the years.

      He could still hear their screams through the walls of the prison.

      “The girl is no’ what I imagined.” He hadn’t heard Angus walk up beside him. “Just a lass, is all, no’ much more than three-and-twenty, maybe even less.”

      “Her age is hardly important. She set a murderer free. It is possible she was in collusion with him from the start. And there is a chance she may know where to find him.”

      Angus nodded. “Aye, that seems ta be the way of it.”

      Ethan stared back out at the water. A thin trickle of moonlight speared toward them as the ship cut through the sea. An icy wind whipped across the deck, slicing through his breeches, his heavy woolen coat and the full-sleeved shirt he wore underneath.

      “Perhaps she loved him.”

      Ethan’s jaw hardened. “The man had a wife and children. The girl is a whore.”

      Angus leaned his thick body against the rail. “I suppose that’s true, as well.” He fiddled with a bit of lint on the front of his heavy wool coat. “Now that ye’ve got her, what will ye do with her?”

      Ethan turned. “She was Jeffries’s whore. Tonight she’ll whore for me.”

      Angus said nothing, but Ethan didn’t miss the look of disapproval in his eyes. “Will ye force her?”

      He shook his head. “I won’t have to. She’s for sale, isn’t she?”

      Angus tugged his stocking cap a little lower over his wide forehead. “If she pays yer price, will ye set her free?”

      Ethan stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “Set her free?” He scoffed. “When I’ve had my fill—when I’m satisfied she can be no help in finding him—I’ll take her back to London and turn her over to the authorities. She’s committed a crime, Angus. She deserves to be punished for what she’s done.”

      The older man grunted. “I’ve a feeling the lass will be punished well and good before she ever gets back ta London.” Angus turned away and ambled toward the ladder leading down to his quarters.

      Ethan softly cursed. Angus hadn’t been with them on that last, fateful journey. Only Ethan and Long-boned Ned had fought alongside the crew of the Sea Witch against the thirty-five-gun frigate that had been hiding in wait off the foggy banks of France. The warship had known exactly where to find them. Her captain had been provided with secret information that would result in the capture of the Sea Witch’s captain and crew.

      Harmon Jeffries had sold out his country, and his mistress had arranged his escape.

      Ethan thought of the woman in his cabin. It was well after midnight. She would probably be sleeping. He imagined her lying naked in his bed, spread like an offering beneath him, and his body stirred to life. Desire pulsed through him and his shaft went hard.

      He would have her. He would bargain for her favors and pleasure himself until she begged him to stop.

      Until this night, he had never behaved as anything but a gentleman where a woman was concerned. The mistresses he had kept over the years had been treated well and fairly.

      But Grace Chastain was different. She deserved to pay and he intended to see it done.

      Frightened and uncertain and exhausted clear to her bones, Grace fought to stay awake. After the captain’s departure, she had curled up in a chair near the door and listened to every sound, certain her enemy would return any moment.

      The devil had made his intentions clear. He meant to take her innocence, to ravage her like the barbarian he was. But she would not make it easy. He was tall and strong, but she was smart and determined. She would fight him to the last, resist him with the last breath in her body.

      The hours ticked past. She could hear the chiming of the ship’s clock, marking every half hour, still he did not return. The roll and sway of the ship began to lull her, the soft rush of the waves against the hull. She tried to keep her eyes open, pinched herself to keep from falling asleep.

      But time crept past and sleep beckoned like a siren calling to an unwary sailor. Her eyes slowly closed. She never heard the door swing quietly open, never heard the sound of the captain’s tall black boots as he walked through the door.

      Ethan stood in the center of his cabin. If he had expected to find Grace Chastain undressed and comfortably settled in his bed he was sorely mistaken.

      Instead the girl huddled in the hard wooden chair in front of his desk, his silver-handled letter opener gripped defensively in her hand. Her head slumped forward onto her chest and the blanket around her shoulders had slid off onto the floor. Her hair was slightly mussed, her lips softly parted in slumber. She looked young and innocent and more enticing than any woman he had ever seen.

      He told himself to wake her, to strike a bargain for the use of her luscious body, but something held him back. That she was exhausted was written in every line of her face. That she was frightened, though she had done her best not to show it, seemed more than clear.

      He should be happy that she suffered, he told himself. It was what he wanted, the reason he had brought her aboard his ship. He meant for her to pay and he would not be satisfied until she did.

      And yet he found himself crossing the room, slipping the letter opener out of her hand, lifting her into his arms and carrying her over to the bed. He tossed back the covers, set her down on the mattress still fully clothed and pulled the blanket up over her.

      He was nearly as tired as she. Perhaps it was better to wait, he told himself. Tomorrow they would strike their bargain and he could take what he wanted. Quietly undressing down to his smallclothes, bare-chested, he blew out the lamp and lay down on the opposite side of the bed, plumping the pillow behind his head.

      Tomorrow, he thought, the image returning of her naked body spread beneath him. Anticipation mingled with fatigue as he drifted off to sleep.

      Tomorrow came earlier than he expected. The sun was not yet up when Ethan’s eyes cracked open and the feeling that something was out of place trickled through him. It took only an instant to remember that his lovely prisoner slept beside him, the soft, warm feel of a woman’s body pressing against him not something that happened all that often.

      Though she still slept like the dead, Grace Chastain’s bottom nestled snugly into his groin, her soft heat penetrating the thin layer of her aqua silk gown and his smallclothes. He was hard, he realized, aching with the need to be inside her. What would she do, he wondered, if he lifted her wrinkled dress and began to gently caress her? The woman had a temper as fiery as her hair. He wondered if he could arouse that same sort of passion in bed.

      She wasn’t new to the game, which could help his cause or hinder it, depending on the sort of lovers she had known over the years. He skimmed a hand lightly over her hip, enjoying the sweetly feminine curves, the roundness of her bottom. He ran a hand along her thigh, down her calf, reached for the hem of her gown—

      The shriek of outrage that erupted from the opposite СКАЧАТЬ